EU: The European Union is being urged to impose economic sanctions against Burma's military government with the aim of securing the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and starting a "roadmap" to democracy.
The call came from Burma's prime minister in exile, Dr Sein Win, who was on a visit yesterday to Dublin, where he met officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Dr Win, who addresses the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs today, said the human rights situation in Burma - also known as Myanmar - has been worsening since Suu Kyi's arrest last May.
"Intervention from the international community is urgently needed to help Burma avert the impending confrontation and bloodshed," Dr Win warned.
He said that with the Burmese government, the State Peace and Development Council, refusing to allow Suu Kyi even be visited by UN representatives, the time was right for the EU to apply "targeted" sanctions against industries controlled by the military.
Emphasising that "there are no moderates among the top generals," Dr Win said the only way to persuade the government of the need for democracy was concerted international pressure. A stronger UN mandate was needed, which turned the international body into a "mediator" and not just facilitator in talks. This should be backed up by the threat of sanctions, Dr Win said. He noted the EU's influence as major importer of textiles from Burma.
"Ireland is going into the presidency of the EU and it is very important for us that Ireland initiates something at this time. The UN process (aimed at starting dialogue) began three years ago, and nothing has happened. We need some push, some concrete action."
Dr Win, who was elected prime minister of the 1990 coalition government, the NCGUB, which was overthrown by the military, said he was "very concerned" about the welfare of Suu Kyi (58). The Nobel peace laureate, who was made a Freewoman of Dublin three years ago, is being detained - "for her own protection" in the military's words - at an unknown location.
Dr Thaung Htun, a NCGUB representative who travelled to Dublin with Dr Win, said the government's concern for international opinion could be seen in its foreign minister's recent visit to New York, armed with photographs of an apparently healthy Suu Kyi under house arrest.
Of concern, he said, was the fact that the photographs showed the pro-democracy leader to be "very thin". Dr Htun said: "The situation in Burma is now as bad as any time in the last 14 years. After May 30th (when Suu Kyi was arrested) the military put the entire democracy leadership under house arrest, or detention. About 100 people were killed. Some escaped to the border and some are still hiding." Dr Win added: "We are now back to square one, perhaps one step back in Burma. We are now talking again about freedom from arrest, rather than dialogue and national reconciliation . . . The idea of a political dialogue taking place through a home-grown process is no longer valid."